Dutch technology group Philips has acquired a small Boston-based health-tech startup called Medumo for its healthcare business.

Medumo uses a combination of e-mail and SMS to convey instructions to patients to its hospital clients. The company, with fewer than 30 employees, is part of the so-called "patient engagement" trend, which provides medical service providers with tools to stay in touch with their patients outside the four walls of the doctor's office.

Philips, the acquisition could provide an opportunity to build a service for its existing healthcare customers.

Philips was in an acquisition phase for its healthcare portfolio, which includes a variety of products for hospitals such as medical devices. Imaging systems and alarm systems help physicians to take care of the most critical patients. A few months ago, Carestream acquired the Health IT business to expand the Radiology Information Technology business, and in 201

8 launched a number of other healthcare start-ups in areas ranging from sleep and respiratory care to next-generation biosensing technology ranged.

Philips and other traditional healthcare providers may face increasing competition from traditional technology giants such as Amazon, Apple and Alphabet. These technology companies are all building their own healthcare businesses, from consumer-oriented smartwatches with health monitoring capabilities to IT systems designed to help clinicians fill in patient records.

Medumo's partners include the Boston Children's Hospital These hospitals are losing billions of dollars every year due to missed appointments and improper procedural preparation or discharge orders. The other main customer is the Harvard Brigham Health Hospital, which Medumo recently described as one of the best start-ups. One of Medumo's first uses is to lead patients through a colonoscopy, making headlines on how to "educate you about your droppings."

The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Phillips sent out an internal memo announcing the deal A spokesperson confirmed, "Philips has signed an agreement to acquire US-based healthcare startup Medumo, and Philips has signed an expanded Diagnostic Patient Management (DPM) offering Digital Service Portfolio. "